October 17, 2006

Eucharist

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, and part of his letter to the Romans caught me in the Office of Readings, as he pleads for his right to be martyred:

Let me be food for wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God's wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread.

All drama aside, here's someone who really understood the eucharist. In it we celebrate who we really are, and become what we receive: the Body of Christ. And what is the Body of Christ but a body that gives itself for others.

So in our celebration of the Eucharist we both celebrate that God has enabled us to be people who give themselves up for others, and are strengthened for continued transformation into the self-sacrificing Body of Christ we receive.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorite quotes. I love to combine it with one from St. Augustine, what Jesus said to him in a vision:

"I am the food of full-grown men. Grow and you shall feed on me. But you shall not change me into your own substance, as you do with the food of your body. Instead you shall be changed into me." (Confessions, VII.10)